JOEY LANDRETH

He’s lauded worldwide as a songwriter, vocalist and guitar stylist par excellence – and he’s no slouch as a slide player, either. We caught up with the Canadian guitarist to find out what makes him tick

- David Mead

In the three short years since we last caught up with Canada’s Joey Landreth, the guitarist has released a debut solo record, Whiskey, in 2017, and a recent follow-up, last year’s Hindsight, which he has been relentlessly touring alongside his commitments to The Bros Landreth, the band he started with his brother, bassist Dave, in their hometown of Winnipeg. In fact, he’s on the road right now on home shores in support of The Bros’ second and latest long-player, ’87.

It was during the gap between the band’s two albums that Joey found time to spread his own songwriting wings. On the recent Hindsight he joined forces with producer and multi-instrumentalist Roman Clarke, with his brother contributing to some of the writing duties, too. Listening to Hindsight again, our ears settle upon the deep growl of Joey’s drop-tuned guitar. “My main guitar, the goldtop, is tuned down to open C,” he tells us, “so not quite the full B that a baritone is, but I live in that tuning, CGCEGC. I use 19 to 65 gauge strings. Originally the set that I started with was 14 to 68, but the 14 was way too light. I just started working my way up. I’ve always liked heavy strings, so in standard tuning, for example, I use 13s. So the 19s are around that kind of weight.”

And so, with the essential ‘What strings do you use?’ question out of the way, it was time to dig a little deeper…

What exactly drew you to the instrument in the first place?